


no time like the present

by panda013 (Amiria_Raven)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Drabbles, F/M, Fluff, LadyNoir - Freeform, Present Tense, adrienette - Freeform, all written in an hour as a personal challenge, i love nathanael, mlfandomweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-08-10 02:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7826461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amiria_Raven/pseuds/panda013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles for mlfandomweek. All present-tense.</p><p>(these were all posted before midnight my time so I got them all in during mlfandomweek HA)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> DAY 1: reveal/family

In all her time as a superhero, Marinette has learned to expect certain things. She learns to expect Alya to show up at the least opportune moments in order to get her scoop. She expects Chat Noir to fail so spectacularly that it actually helps them in their fights and gives him bragging rights later. Marinette now fully expects Chat to bow in that suave way he has, take her hand, and press his lips to her knuckles in a delicate, tender caress.

However, there are also things that Marinette doesn’t know to expect. Like, for instance, the fact that she has been trapped in a room with Adrien Agreste as _Ladybug_ and has no way out as her earrings start to beep.

She doesn’t even know why Adrien was in this room in the first place, but she knows that going out into the school’s bustling hallway is impossible, and she is between Adrien and his exit.

There isn’t even enough time to ask him to leave, so she squeaks and dives as her suit starts to unravel, banging her knee on a desk as she tries to slide underneath it. She curses, but she doesn’t care, because her heart was beating out of her chest and…she has missed her aim. She slides past the desk, into the aisle, and is blinking up at Adrien as he stares, absolutely flabbergasted, down at her.

 _At Marinette_.

“Oh my God,” she breathes, and scrambles backwards, behind the table, wheezing, “ _no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!_ ” as she clenches her eyes closed and prays that she’s just been dreaming.

But it’s only as Ladybug that she’s ever had any sort of luck, because Adrien is slowly stooping down beside her, green eyes wide as he stares at the face of the girl that has probably just ruined all of his ideals about Ladybug. And the worst part is that Marinette _knows_ he’s a fan. She _knows_ and now he probably regrets all of his merchandise, his computer’s wallpapers, _everything_.

“Marinette?” his voice is soft, like the gentle puff of a breeze through the trees on a clear spring day, and she finally dares to open her eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” is the only thing she can say when she sees his concern. His eyes widen and she’s not sure she wants to know why, but then his hand is lightly wrapping around her fingers and he’s brushing his lips across her knuckles with practiced ease, as if he does it every day.

“My lady,” he nearly chokes, and she sees the dusting of pink on his cheeks. “There’s nothing for you to a _paw_ logize for.”

Marinette doesn’t quite know whether she should laugh or cry, so instead she does a tiny bit of both, falling forward so that her forehead rests on his shoulder. Adrien’s hand comes up to rub a gentle circle on her back, and for the first time since she had accidentally locked herself in here with him, she feels completely at ease.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAY 2: AU/friends

Adrien is a regular at _Spots_.

It’s an unusual name for a coffee shop, sure, but it’s the perfect place to go when he wants to have some peace and a nice coffee. He’s right in the middle of his semester of student teaching, and he likes grading the physics papers and assignments over a nice latte.

He can’t deny that one of the attractions, for him, is the cute French-Chinese barista whose nametag boldly declares her as _MARINETTE_. The apron she wears is red, with black spots, like most of the décor of the entire shop, and it’s incredibly adorable on her. She also has his order down by heart, and can even guess the days he’s planning to switch it up.

And the way she groans when he takes his drink in hand and says, “Thanks a latte,” is the cherry on top.

Even though she groans, there’s always the quirk of a smile at the corner of her lips, threatening to spread across her features. And she gets a delicate pink flush across her porcelain cheeks that makes his stomach do flips—not that he would ever admit that to her. Or, well, not yet. He wants to, but he doesn’t think that it’s really the best time, with as busy as he is. And through conversations that he has overheard between Marinette and her barista friend, Alya, he knows that she’s fairly busy, too.

So instead, Adrien contents himself with stopping to buy a coffee on a nearly daily basis.

It’s on a day that he has to grab and run, because he stayed up late grading and will be late for his student teaching if he lingers too long, that one of his students smirks at him and points at the side of the coffee cup that’s facing the classroom.

Adrien feels his face burn and he hurriedly turns it away from them and stares blankly at the number written there, a tiny ladybug doodle right beside it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAY 3: love square/powers

She is reluctant the day she gets her powers.

Tikki is insistent, but Marinette blows her off. She’s not cut out for that kind of responsibility, and saving the world just doesn’t sound like her cup of tea.

She has never really been fond of the idea that _with great power comes great responsibility_.

And while she finally accepts the duties of Ladybug when her new friend Alya is caught in the crossfire, it is a very slow process for her to truly acknowledge what it means to have this kind of overwhelming power in her hands. It scares her, being able to heal so much and actually having _good luck_ when all she has ever embodied was bad luck. But after a while, what scares her more is the thought of someone who actually _wanted_ this kind of power.

She is scared of it, so she is cautious.

Someone like Hawkmoth, who desires this power for reasons that she doesn’t know, is _terrifying_.

And when she thinks of terrifying powers, she can’t help but remember the way that Chat Noir’s _Cataclysm_ decimates everything it touches. With that kind of strength, that incredible ability to disintegrate anything in his way, she can only imagine what someone with the wrong intentions could do.

No…Marinette doesn’t want her powers. The more she sees of the greed that comes with power, the less she wants to possess that kind of ability herself. But she puts on a steadily more confident façade because, if she doesn’t use these powers for good _because_ she fears them, then who else will?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAY 4: relationships/character-centric  
> (I LOVE NATH OKAY)

He has always loved to draw.

Nathanael can’t put a date on it, but since he was young, he has always loved to create. At first it was playing with finger paints and crayons, and later watercolors and markers and colored pencils, but now it is more and it is less. It is fulfilling, but it is also a challenge.

The reality is that the world rarely takes an artist seriously. He has a degree, but it means nothing when he has no gallery exhibit, no real network of fellow artists to draw upon and converse with. And he has moved on from the comics of his youth, from the epics of Ladybug and the, admittedly embarrassing, self-inserts and consequent romances that followed. Nathanael has volumes of original comic works strewn across his workshop, and if he gathers them he knows that the story is almost complete.

He just can’t finish it. There’s something integral missing, and he doesn’t know just what it is.

He resorts to painting, because it is something quick and mindless, and he creates abstract works that say everything and yet nothing at all. He knows how he feels, he knows what emotion each color portrays, but he also knows that the exact feelings he is offering will not always be interpreted as they are.

Somehow, the thought both encourages and discourages him.

There’s something missing from even those pieces, and it’s not something that drinking can fix.

When he pauses to stare at his hands, he follows his wrists. His arms are inked sleeves, bouquets of flowers that he was never able to give, a teasing memory of what once resided in the center of his heart. But it was that girl from so long ago that taught him to love freely, even if he wasn’t loved in return. She taught him to express himself, even if he wasn’t clearly heard at first.

And maybe, he realizes as he dips his paintbrush again, raising it to slowly leave the impression of petals across his canvas, that passion, that flame from his youth, is just what he’s been missing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAY 5: miraculous holders/secrets

From youth, children are told that secrets don’t make friends.

From the day he becomes Chat Noir, Adrien’s opinion of that phrase slowly changes.

At first, he wants to know who his partner is. She is so endearing, so charismatic, so _perfect_ , that he wants to know her as just Adrien, too. But she’s resistant, and worried, and while at first he doesn’t understand, he lets her keep her secrets because he trusts her.

As time passes, he learns that, even with the secrets between them, their friendship only continues to grow stronger.

 _If secrets don’t make friends_ , he wonders, _then how can I trust her with my life?_

He still wants to know, but gradually, it becomes less important. As long as they have the masks, he doesn’t need to know who she is because he’ll always be able to reach her. He tries not to worry about the _what ifs_ that follow, when the kwami have to leave them and they lose their partnership.

Slowly, her secret becomes something he himself wants to protect.

She doesn’t want him to know, not yet and maybe not ever, but she’s so important to him that he’s fine with that. Their friendship and camaraderie is something he treasures, and even if it isn’t meant to last, he’ll always cherish these days of their youth.

And the nature of their secrets change in the years they share together, from the first stolen kiss somewhere along the Parisian skyline to the first time she actually tells him she loves him.

But despite all his yearning, the day comes when they have to say goodbye to that partnership at last, and Adrien thinks that he’ll have to let go of the only woman he’s ever truly loved at the same time. But in their last few moments together as the heroes of Paris, she slips a crumpled piece of paper into his hands.

“Come here tomorrow, at midnight,” she murmurs, and as she slips away, tears in her eyes, he holds the piece of paper to his chest.

Their original secrets are about to crumble, but they’ve already created the best friendship in the world.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAY 6: kwamis/puns  
> #sorrynotsorry

Living through many incarnations of their chosen Miraculous Holders had never been easy, but as perhaps one of the brightest of the kwami, the day Tikki had to part with her heroes had always been the worst.

She still remembers their faces. Every single one, from all the thousands of years that the powers of Ladybug had been required.

She remembers her youngest, at ten, who had an adorable gap between her front teeth and a penchant for finding trouble. She’d been an orphan and had been living on the streets when she and Tikki were united, and the joy that Tikki was able to bestow upon her by giving her the freedom and powers of Ladybug had been the most satisfying feeling in the world.

She remembers her oldest, a woman at the age of twenty-nine, who had been a single mother when the Keeper of the Miraculous had decided that she was the best fit for Ladybug. She had been the most skeptical, but one of the most brilliant Ladybugs to ever fight evil, and Tikki remembered playing with the child some nights, though she was never entirely sure if she could be seen.

Tikki also remembers those she lost in the tides of battle, or those she was separated from.

Sometimes, those memories are the hardest ones to cope with.

And on nights when she can’t rest for all the images in her mind, she watches her current holder sleep. Marinette, on nights like this, sleeps soundly, and sometimes she grins softly in her slumber. Marinette is caring and kind, and she barely moves when Tikki slips into the small space on her pillow, beneath her cupped hand.

It is warm and comfortable, and her current Ladybug is right here, safe and sound.

She closes her eyes, and the memories are no longer quite as painful as they had been when she was alone.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAY 7: free for all

When she sees Nino standing there, staring at her, it’s all Marinette can do to keep herself from screeching as the last strip of red from the Ladybug suit disappears.

There is no sound. There’s no breeze in this little alleyway, no strays clamoring around. The sounds of the streets at either end sound strangely distant, and Marinette can’t tell what Nino is thinking. At all. So instead, they stare at each other in stunned silence for a few moments before she squeaks a little, and Nino seems to come to his senses.

“Bruh,” he says, lamely, before he actually manages to add, “ _Mari_? You’re _Ladybug_? And you haven’t told Alya yet?”

Marinette blinks, and she’s kind of surprised he’s not spazzing out. But he’s not his girlfriend, and he doesn’t run the blog that’s dead set on unmasking her.

“It’s dangerous,” she says instead, staring calculatingly at her friend. “Can you imagine the field day Hawkmoth would have if she released my identity on the Ladyblog?”

Nino scoffs, turning off the music she can hear through the headphones around his neck. She’s a little indignant at the sound, but then he asks, “Do you really think she’d out you if you told her how dangerous it is? Especially since it’s _you_?”

Marinette looks away sheepishly.

“She records live sometimes,” she admits. “I’m always scared that it will be caught on live tape, or if something bad happened to me, I’m afraid she’d say _my_ name instead of Ladybug. And…it’s safer, her not knowing.”

Nino was silent for a moment, and Marinette desperately wanted him to speak. She wanted him to understand, but she also wanted…acceptance?

“I won’t tell her, if that’s what you’re wondering,” he finally says, and she feels her shoulders sag in relief. “I hate keeping secrets from her, y’know, but this is something that should come from you, girl. I won’t get in the way of that. But…ya gotta trust her more. She’s your best friend for a reason, isn’t she?”

Marinette remains silent for a few moments. Nino’s right, of course, but the fear of being found out has been ingrained in her for so long that she’s not entirely sure how to feel about it. It’s not that she doesn’t trust her friend, though. Alya is her best friend in the entire world, and she knows that the girl wouldn’t intentionally put her in danger.

“Y…you’re right. I just can’t…not right now,” she whispers after a very pregnant pause. “I will someday, but I’m just not ready yet.”

“Someday’s all I’m asking,” Nino grins encouragingly at her, and he steps forward to wrap an arm around her shoulders. “Now, on account of how big this secret is, why don’t we go grab some snacks from your bakery and I’ll call it even?”

Giggling, Marinette agreed, “Deal.”


End file.
